It’s the Tees’n’Pierre show again, I’m afraid. He must be getting fed up with me as his blogger.
Always a sound and entertaining puzzle from this setter, and lots to like in this morning’s offering, with the usual sprinkling of political references.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Journey westward among trees in French city
LIMOGES
An insertion of GO reversed in LIMES. The insertion indicator is ‘among’ and the reversal indicator is ‘westward’.
5 Greens, at first boiled, mashed: many thanks!
OBLIGED
(G BOILED)* with ‘mashed’ as the anagrind.
9 Beat somewhat shorter finalist in Omnium?
MINIM
A charade of MINI and M for the last letter in ‘Omnium’.
10 Horrid thing to ruin repose, ultimately?
NIGHTMARE
A charade of (THING)*, MAR and E and a rather clever cad. The anagrind is ‘horrid’.
11 Public article to appear before Charles’s passing
OVERTAKING
A charade of OVERT, A and KING.
12 Rhine tributary rougher here and there
RUHR
The even letters of RoUgHeR give you the German river.
14 One in secret coup destroyed ERG politician?
EUROSCEPTIC
An insertion of I in (SECRET COUP)* The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the anagrind is ‘destroyed’. The European Research Group is a caucus of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, often referred to as the ‘Party within the Party’. I’ll say no more because I’ll get wound up.
18 Printer’s perseverance keeping dot?
INTERSPERSE
Hidden in PrINTERS PERSEverance.
21 Want chess player to sacrifice bishop
LACK
[B]LACK
22 Stormy setter sloshed in shopping sector
HIGH STREET
A charade of HIGH and (SETTER)* with ‘sloshed’ as the anagrind. I’m sure no self-respecting Indy setter would allow himself to be found in such a state.
25 Buddhist artist engaging a wool producer reportedly
DALAI LAMA
An insertion of A in [Salvador] DALI and aural wordplay(‘reportedly’) for LLAMA. The insertion indicator is ‘engaging’.
26 I may represent this country
INDIA
INDIA does represent this letter in the phonetic alphabet.
27 Exasperated striker’s last time in terminus
ENRAGED
An insertion of R for the final letter of ‘striker’ and AGE in END. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
28 An outside line to ring?
TANGENT
A cd. The surface refers to old-fashioned telephony, the cryptic bit to geometry.
Down
1 Puzzle initially freaking out clumsy idiot
LUMMOX
[F]LUMMOX, This word is more AmEng than BrEng, I fancy.
2 Fashion house given mention
MANNER
Aural wordplay (‘given mention’) of MANOR. ‘To the manner born’ was coined by Shakespeare and comes originally from Hamlet; it means accustomed since birth to a particular behaviour or lifestyle:
Ay, marry, is ’t.
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honour’d in the breach than the observance.
But ‘to the manor born’, perhaps a misunderstanding of the original, is now used to mean ‘born into an upper-class lifestyle’. This usage has been around since the mid-19th century, but got a whole lot more popular when the BBC sitcom hit the screens in the late 1970s.
3 Ah! Geometry transformational in maths branch!
GAME THEORY
(AH GEOMETRY)* with ‘transformational’ as the anagrind. It sounds trivial, but isn’t: fifteen game theorists have won the economics Nobel Prize.
4 King opening up sees PM
SUNAK
How could Tees possibly think of using SUNAK and ‘anus’ as part of the same clue? The man has no respect for politicians. A reversal of K and ANUS.
5 Ring that goes with fancy earrings in storage container
ORGANISER
A charade of O and (EARRINGS)* with ‘fancy’ as the anagrind.
6 Holding back eighth item to be auctioned?
LOTH
Whimsically, the eighth lot to be auctioned might be LOT H.
7 In crowd Scots frightened posh student
GRADUATE
An insertion of RAD and U in GATE. The insertion indicator is ‘in’. RAD is a Scots dialect word for ‘afraid’.
8 Actor once in Parliament full of comic potential
DIETRICH
A charade of DIET (the famous Diet of Worms is the best-known usage) and RICH. Marlene DIETRICH, the German-American actress and singer. Or actor, if you prefer.
13 Boring President forced to tour America
PEDESTRIAN
An insertion of A in (PRESIDENT)* The insertion indicator is ‘to tour’ and the anagrind is ‘forced’. Now Tees is being sniffy about Joe Biden.
15 Agent with servant brought in free carpet
REPRIMAND
A charade of REP and MAN inserted into RID. The insertion indicator is ‘brought in’.
16 Drive away from island and lake in Kansas City
DISLODGE
An insertion of IS and L in DODGE. Dodge City is in Kansas.
17 Pedant needs to stay alert in the middle
STICKLER
A charade of STICK and [A]LER[T]
19 Tinker‘s award for service announced
MEDDLE
Aural wordplay (‘announced’) for MEDAL.
20 Map book linked to temperature in the end
AT LAST
A charade of ATLAS and T.
23 Sailor almost showing courage
HEART
HEART[Y]. ‘Avast, me hearties!’ Or something like that.
24 Russian fighter protecting name for dynasty
MING
And a final insertion: of N in MIG. The insertion indicator is ‘protecting’.
Many thanks to Tees for the start to the Indy week.
No idea whether I am just having a dopey Monday or whether this was a tougher Tees than normal. I really struggled to get on the wavelength and needed a reveal or two right at the end: I’m not sure I’ve encountered LUMMOX before – if I have then I had certainly forgotten it in time for the puzzle. I also failed to spot the manor/MANNER, convinced there was a fashion house of which I was unaware – entirely possible. And then I was clean bowled by TANGENT, even with all the crossers. I revealed the A and the penny dropped. So, this was certainly a victory for the setter.
Favourites include NIGHTMARE, INTERSPERSE, ENRAGED, GAME THEORY, DIETRICH and REPRIMAND.
Thanks to the T&P combo
It’s always good to start the week with Tees (and Pierre).
My favourites were 10ac NIGHTMARE, 14ac EUROSCEPTIC, 8dn DIETRICH, 13dn PEDESTRIAN and 1dn LUMMOX – which I’ve never thought of as American: I’ve known it since I was a child and always loved it . Both Collins and Chambers give ‘origin unknown, though Collins has ‘C19’) and both have ‘a clumsy stupid person’, so ‘clumsy’ is part of the definition.
Re 4dn SUNAK: I knew this rang a bell. A couple of weeks ago, in the Guardian, Paul (no surprise there) gave us ‘Politician: his being slightly inadequate, hole up when in jeopardy (5,5)’.
Many thanks to both Tees and Pierre for the entertainment.
Loved K+ANUS RISH!
Eileen@2
LUMMOX
Agree with you on the def.
Thanks, Tees and Pierre!
That was supposed to be:
Loved K+ANUS RISH!
I don’t know why GeneratePress bowdlerised my comment.
Third time lucky?
Loved K+ANUS, making a nice change from !RISH — RISH!
LUMMOX https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lummox
‘Etymology Unknown. First attested in 1825 in East Anglian slang. Perhaps from “dumb ox”, influenced by lumbering; or from or cognate to dialectal verb lummock (“move about heavily or clumsily”), itself a word of uncertain origin.’
[F]LUMMOX https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flummox
Etymology Uncertain, probably risen out of a British dialect (OED finds candidate words in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, southern Cheshire, and Sheffield). “The formation seems to be onomatopœic, expressive of the notion of throwing down roughly and untidily”‘
As Eileen said, always good to start the week with Tees and Pierre.
I too have always known lummox as English English
Thanks to both
Also liked DALI LLAMA – here’s a birthday card – ‘Inside Greeting: Have a surreal birthday!’ – https://www.allport.com/products/76
I have obviously not been moving in the right British English circles. Must get out more. Thank you, Eileen – I have extended the underlining.
Morning all.
FrankieG @9. 🙂
A lot to like here. A nice new ( to me at least) sailor, the very clever 18A, and not forgetting the little more than a backside of a PM. The only thing missing was a bird!
Thanks to T&P
Sometimes, I think our setter spends too much of his life mooching about in the HIGH STREET dreaming of ways to undermine politicians!
Top clue for me was LIMOGES with a nod to MANNER for the reminder of the fabulous Penelope Keith.
Thanks to Tees and to Pierre for another, sadly birdless, review.
Apart from LIMOGES, which we saw fairly early on, we were held up for ages in the NW corner till one of us had LUMMOX emerge from the depths of the subconscious, after which the rest fell into place. LOI, on the other side of the grid, was DIETRICH, after we wasted time trying to fit something into ‘diet’. [Incidentally, the Diet is the formal title of the Japanese parliament.] Our other hold-up was with TANGENT – a lovely PDM when we got it.
Thanks, Tees and Pierre.
I thought this was an absolute belter of a puzzle. Did most of it early doors and pre-blog but returned to the last half dozen or so and pleased I did.
Highlights (of which there were many) include NIGHTMARE (but a dream of a clue) EUROSCEPTIC, DALAI LAMA and TANGENT.
Thanks Tees for a top puzzle and Pierre for a likewise review.
Yes Jane, only today I was mooching about the High Street in a daze, after having endured Rachel Reeves’ rant at Conference. I will get her somehow. Anagram of ‘several cheer’ amusingly enough, so maybe it’s on. Also I bought a new coffee press thing, and a hat from the BHF, so happy days. It says it’s made in china, but I’m pretty sure it’s polyester.
Thanks Pierre (again) and to all commenters.
Thanks Tees for an excellent start to the week. One of these days I’ll complete a Tees crossword without cheating but that wasn’t today. I needed a single letter reveal to solve both MANNER and TANGENT but most else eventually made sense. My top picks were GAME THEORY for the anagram, NIGHTMARE for its construction, and OVERTAKING for its surface. I only knew MINIM as a liquid measurement so I learned something today. Thanks Pierre for the blog and restraining yourself from a political rant — I live in Washington, DC and as you can imagine I find such things tiresome.